Author: Chelsea (Peril Please)
(page 1 of 102)

Synopsis:

One broken heart, ten blind dates—and a whole lot of confusion!

Sophie wants one thing for Christmas—a little freedom from her overprotective parents. So when they decide to spend Christmas in South Louisiana with her very pregnant older sister, Sophie is looking forward to some much needed private (read: make-out) time with her long-term boyfriend, Griffin. Except it turns out that Griffin wants a little freedom from their relationship.

Heartbroken, Sophie flees to her grandparents’ house, where the rest of her boisterous extended family is gathered for the holiday. That’s when her nonna devises a (not so) brilliant plan: Over the next ten days, Sophie will be set up on ten different blind dates by different family members. Like her sweet cousin Sara, who sets her up with a hot guy at an exclusive underground party. Or her crazy aunt Patrice, who signs Sophie up for a lead role in a living nativity. With a boy who barely reaches her shoulder. And a screaming baby.

When Griffin turns up unexpectedly and begs for a second chance, Sophie feels more confused than ever. Because maybe, just maybe, she’s started to have feelings for someone else . . . Someone who is definitely not available.

This is going to be the worst Christmas break ever . . . or is it?

10 Blind Dates Giveaway

I am so happy to be partnering with the Disney Book Group to provide you guys a chance to win a romantic prize pack including a copy of 10 Blind Dates by Ashley Elston and a $50 Visa gift card to plan your own date night!

Ashley Elston is the author of several novels including: The Rules for Disappearing (a finalist in the Best Young Adult Novel category of the International Thriller Writers Thriller Awards) and This Is Our Story. She has a liberal arts degree from Louisiana State University in Shreveport and worked for many years as a wedding photographer before turning her hand to writing. Ashley lives in Shreveport with her husband and three sons.

Joe Goldberg is no stranger to hiding bodies. In the past ten years, this thirty-something has buried four of them, collateral damage in his quest for love. Now he’s heading west to Los Angeles, the city of second chances, determined to put his past behind him.

In Hollywood, Joe blends in effortlessly with the other young upstarts. He eats guac, works in a bookstore, and flirts with a journalist neighbor. But while others seem fixated on their own reflections, Joe can’t stop looking over his shoulder. The problem with hidden bodies is that they don’t always stay that way. They re-emerge, like dark thoughts, multiplying and threatening to destroy what Joe wants most: true love. And when he finds it in a darkened room in Soho House, he’s more desperate than ever to keep his secrets buried. He doesn’t want to hurt his new girlfriend—he wants to be with her forever. But if she ever finds out what he’s done, he may not have a choice…

Honestly? I’m a bit shocked and disappointed. No, I DID NOT FINISH…but, hear me out, I just think-with a book/subject matter like this-less is more. The first book floored me. So many requotable quotes. Hilarious inner monologue. I LOVED Joe (as much as you can love a psycho who kills women who don’t adhere to what he believes a girlfriend should be ). I loved his take on life. On America-‘Fucking America, Beck.’. On pop culture and the idiots radiating through the streets of New York. The way he addressed Beck as ‘You’. Brilliant. And he slayed me with his humor.

But here…it hurts to say it…it just. It does not work. Not again, anyway. It was jarring, to say the least-to read about the untimely demise of Guinevere Beck. I was shocked that it happened, that he went through with it, that he killed someone he thought he loved. It was painful and cringy to read, honestly. But…it fit. It worked. It wasn’t shocking as much as it was heartbreaking.

Here? It’s tired. Overused. And I tire of him judging every woman he loves. I get wanting an epic, amazing love. Don’t many of us crave that? But disposing of all the women? My God it’s such an exaggerated overreaction and an overused formula. Okay. He’s a total freaking lunatic now. I think he really, truly didn’t intend to become a legit serial killer in the first (just a raving crazy stalker, of course :P), and he always *seemed* to find remorse for ‘having to do what needed to be done’. In Hidden Bodies, he kills like…without blinking. His rage blinds him. His lust for revenge drives him. And it’s just….annoying. Repetitive. And I don’t have that horribly wrong and misguided urge to sympathize with him. I found myself thinking [when something went wrong] ‘Well, bet he’ll kill [her/him] now.’ Shocker.

Where’s the fun of the mystery? The wondering if he really will go through with murdering the girl he wanted so much that he rearranged his whole life for her. I really and truly enjoyed the tone of the first book. It was almost like a fucked up version of a romance and I just loved it so much. I loved almost secretly rooting for them to make it, for Joe to get the girl he *thought* he loved. The sweet moments to flourish and become more. Sick as that is. This? This was a bloody witch hunt and I couldn’t emotionally connect with nor find the parallel of the Joe who made me feel as though he had a heart.

Robotic. Monotonous. Heart-breaking. I loved the effed up first book-but perhaps that’s what it should have stayed. A one book series that left a punch, readers enthralled, and the story wide open for our interpretation. This is definitely a case of knowing too much and there not being enough new (or interesting) material to justify the continuance of his story.

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I am so excited to present the cover for LJ Shen's latest and greatest All Saints High novel, Broken Knight! Isn't it just...I LOVE IT. But I think I am most thrilled because I know about the steamy, tortured contents that are sure to be a part of this story and it makes the cover all the better! So please enjoy and sign up (info below) for release day updates! 🙂

Synopsis:

Not all love stories are written the same way. Ours had torn chapters, missing paragraphs, and a bittersweet ending.

Luna Rexroth is everyone’s favorite wallflower.
Sweet.
Caring.
Charitable.
Quiet.
Fake.
Underneath the meek, tomboy exterior everyone loves (yet pities) is a girl who knows exactly what, and who, she wants—namely, the boy from the treehouse who taught her how to curse in sign language.
Who taught her how to laugh.
To live.
To love.
Knight Cole is everyone’s favorite football hero.
Gorgeous.
Athletic.
Rugged.
Popular.
Liar.
This daredevil hell-raiser could knock you up with his gaze alone, but he only has eyes for the girl across the street: Luna.
But Luna is not who she used to be. She doesn’t need his protection anymore.
When life throws a curveball at All Saints’ golden boy, he’s forced to realize not all knights are heroes.
Sometimes, the greatest love stories flourish in tragedy.

“Not all love stories are written in the same way.

Ours had torn chapters, missing paragraphs, and a bittersweet ending.”

Broken Knight, the highly anticipated new standalone in the All Saints High series from USA Today bestselling author L.J. Shen is coming August 25th, and we have the red-hot cover!

Official Synopsis!

Luna Rexroth is everyone’s favorite wallflower.

Sweet.

Caring.

Charitable.

Quiet.

Fake.

See, under the meek, tomboy exterior everyone loves yet pities is a girl who knows exactly what – and who – she wants.

Namely, the boy from the treehouse, who taught her how to curse in sign language.

Who taught her how to laugh.

To live.

To love.

Knight Cole is everyone’s favorite football hero.

Gorgeous.

Athletic.

Jagged.

Popular.

Liar.

See, the daredevil hellraiser could knock you up with his gaze alone, but only has eyes for the girl across the street.

But Luna is not who she used to be. She doesn’t need his protection anymore.

When life throws a curveball at All Saints’ golden boy, he is forced to realize that not all heroes are knights.

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Synopsis:

“Trust me, I’ve wanted to punch you in the face a time or five.”

When the man you worshipped as a kid becomes your coach, it’s supposed to be the greatest thing in the world. Keywords: supposed to.

It didn't take a week for 27-year-old Sal Casillas to wonder what she'd seen in the international soccer icon - why she'd ever had his posters on her wall or ever envisioned marrying him and having super-playing soccer babies.

Sal had long ago gotten over the worst non-break-up in the history of imaginary relationships with a man who hadn't known she'd existed. So she isn't prepared for this version of Reiner Kulti who shows up to her team's season: a quiet, reclusive shadow of the explosive, passionate man he'd once been.

Someone who didn’t know me at all could only love me if I was half myself.

And this, ladies and Gents, is how you obliterate a reading slump. Sure, I struggled hard the first five percent. My eyes wouldn’t focus. My mind was on how I wasn’t feeling well enough and should be relaxing, watching television, and not forcing my eyes to focus on my tiny phone screen. And the utter exhaustion. Can we create an Olympic category where we get a medal for being able to read while pregnant and caring for a rambunctious two year old all day? I vote yes.

“You know your reputation is just what everyone else thinks of you, your character is what you really are.”

But, as with all my darling Mariana Zapata books, it happened. It was even simpler than normal, I’ll tell you. All it took for my ass to come back to the land of the living? This passage. This one RIGHT. HERE.

…I made the mistake of looking over my shoulder. Those amber-moss eyes that I’d seen from across my bedroom walls for thousands of days in my childhood, were on me. On. Me. Not looking through me, not over me. But directly on me.

Yeah. My ovaries were gone. OH! And have I mentioned that reading a book that makes you want to throw up butterflies while pregnant essentially makes you ill? Like…that much emotion and that many feels paired with a wiggling fetus? GTFO. I almost died of spontaneous combustion. Twice.

That’s not to say I’m unbiased when it comes to the queen of the slowest of slow burns. I’m a sucker. I’ve always said-it doesn’t have to be new material. It just has to be done WELL. Let’s face it-MZ has a pattern…and I dig TF out of it. Yeah, to some it may be repetitive. But the fact remains that no matter my mood, this woman somehow brings me out of the depths of hell almost every single time I pick up her stories. I wasn’t reading-haven’t read since April, for instance. I tried to re-read my all time favorites. Zilch. I tried a couple new books I was super ecstatic to read. Nada. Then I decided to just give in and read the last sports romance my woman had available…and guess who’s on a steady reading schedule again? And I owe that to this girl who just followed her dreams, quit her job to write, and just….made magic happen. I hope, if she ever were to read this, she’d feel to the depths of her soul the gratitude I feel for her making NA/Adult Contemporary relevant at all to me. I love her and I’ll read whatever she writes. Loyal fan forever and always, always and forever.

Moving on from that, though, it begs to be said that I wasn’t going to read this. Yeah. I know. One of my favorite by MZ EVER, and I almost said no to it. There were so many reasons, honestly, but by far away the largest one was that I played soccer. So, okay, I’m 100% that bitch that physically cannot stand reading about something they know everything about and it being butchered all to hell. I played soccer since I was 6 so…yes. I was apprehensive. Thing was, I was good, too. I didn’t just play to play, I did it all and experienced heavy travel and played for some of the best teams my humble state had to offer.

But that’s why, again, MZ is my lady. What I love most about her books is this: Simplicity. She makes you feel like you’re going through the whole spectrum of your MCs’ lives, yet she only touches on the actual sports in the most pivotal moments that give the most impact, add the most heart, and doesn’t ever take away from all the character development she worked so hard to create. And you can never say she overdoes, undersells, or makes anything too OTT with the sports scenes. They just…embellish. And it’s just the cherry on top of the cake of absolute perfection. I swear. I never once felt like she didn’t know what she was talking about…and that is beauty in and of itself.

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When one door closes, another one opens. I might just have to do a little breaking and entering to get the right one for me.

And then, the other reason I was unsure whether to read this? A friend told me Kulti was an old grump and a total a-hole, nothing like Ivan or Aiden and not worth my time. *scoffs* well. Friend. If you’re reading this, I suppose you didn’t know me at all lol. Because if by old grump you meant Sexy AF Broody Protective Coach With a Hard On For The Girl Who Was in Love With Him As A Child then YES, he is a moody old sod. But hardly. I mean. Yum. I mean….Did you even READ the softball scenes? The tender moments of friendship? The protectiveness? The jelly feels? The way he clearly, CLEARLY wanted her to succeed? I just… I get the ‘he’s overly barky towards her when he need not be that way’ but have you ever had a coach that knows you can succeed and be even better? They are a lot like this….I hate to tell people who doubt that but, yes, it is possible to have a quiet brooding coach that only speaks in yell-and every single one of them I got was my absolute favorite and I never forgot them. Ya know why? I respected them and they respected me. Of course, I sure as hell hope none of them sported a boner for me. That’s only cool in my books because lol Yeah. Fantasy, amirite?

“This isn’t meant to be funny. Why are you smiling?” “Because.” “What?”I rolled my lips over my teeth and gave him an even look. “I watched this one game where your teammate, Keller, got tackled and had four of his vertebrae dislocated. The camera zoomed in on you, and you were retying your cleats or something. I don’t know why I just remembered that. Two of my favorite things about you were that you never gave a single shit what happened to anyone else on the field, and that you never missed games unless you couldn’t walk. It’s impressive, really. It makes me feel really special that you care about me.”“I care about things,” he argued. “Oh? Like what?” “Winning.” I bit my lip to keep from laughing. “Okay.” “My fish.” His fish. Jesus Christ.

There are so many moments that I can’t possibly name them all, and I don’t want to. But I think it needs to be said that this book was so strong to me not because it was a typical MZ, but it almost felt ATYPTICAL. I loved their relationship. The taunting. The being on the same level of play-athletically able to push one another and therefore further development and the story. The name calling. The friendship. Their activities together. And, of course, the slow burn. Maybe the slowest yet-and I loved every little bit of it. And, this is a pivotal moment-This is the first time I’m battling within myself to keep Kulti away from my number one spot of MZ books-which forever and always belongs to my wall of Winnipeg, Aiden…but it’s hard. I really am doing my best to fight my mind about why Aiden still reigns supreme…but I’m losing the battle to myself. And isn’t that just the worst problem to have? Two epic stories that can’t be topped by one another. What a humdinger of a predicament. But I’d battle myself every day if I could, because it means I fell just as hard in love with another of her books. Again. Huge problem. Hate it. #not.

Synopsis:

It’s been two months since the Fates were freed from a deck of cards, two months since Legend claimed the throne for his own, and two months since Tella discovered the boy she fell in love with doesn’t really exist.

With lives, empires, and hearts hanging in the balance, Tella must decide if she’s going to trust Legend or a former enemy. After uncovering a secret that upends her life, Scarlett will need to do the impossible. And Legend has a choice to make that will forever change and define him.

Caraval is over, but perhaps the greatest game of all has begun. There are no spectators this time: only those who will win, and those who will lose everything.

Welcome, welcome to Finale. All games must come to an end…

And here we are-the end. There’s just something so magical about this series that goes beyond the actual, well, magic. The words transport you. The world makes you so thirsty for more. The boys are just so addicting and drag you in, even if you don’t want to…and the relationships make you stay.

I wish I could say that I wasn’t as big a fool for this series as everyone else…but I am. I am so trash for it and I just can’t seem to stop searching and fighting and clawing my way to all the editions of it I can muster up. I can admit it’s gotten a bit out of hand, but it’s been so fun I can’t say I even care. My husband, however…he may disagree. The whimsical feeling and the high stakes fun make this book and series something that I don’t often find anymore. And I can’t say that it’s all perfect-which is why I’m JUST NOW on the Caraval special UK edition bandwagon-but there’s just something so dazzling that finally stuck it’s claws into me-Too bad it took me years to figure out how much I loved it. Cue eyeroll.

I literally cannot say much about this story because I feel like everyone will know what happens if I do. We all know there will be romantic angst. We all know Julian and Scarlett have some things to work out (and, I’m sorry, but their story, arc, and ending were far more satisfying than any other in this book, for me). We all know Tella and-ahem-are working through major ‘I can’t be your hero’ vibes (ohh but I do so love it *heart eyes*). But aside from that, I’d be doing a disservice to all if I gave too much away.
So, I’ll do my BEST to capture what made this final book like crack to me.

The romantic peril was just…out of this world fantastic. I was drooling from the declarations and pleas and cries and…OKAY I’VE SAID TOO MUCH BUT DAMN IT CAN YOU BLAME ME? Okay. Rerouting. I digress. Back to business-It was spectacular. But it really shined with one couple-And I will reread my favorite moments with this element so many times my iPad will start to smoke.

And the story. I really enjoyed where it went, in this one. Kind of. Welll…Yeah. I did and didn’t. That is one of my two biggest pet peeves. I will spoiler both. But, in general, for most of this book, I was a goner for every little thing. But, the end. The villain-This is BY FAR one of my least favorite ‘fights’ against a villain. Like…is that really how we wanted this epic story, this evil dude, to end? To Die? It basically ends with a realization, a lecture, and a quick stab…and it’s FLIPPING OVER! ‘You’ve been a badddd boy! Now DIE!’ I just…my heart. I will say, though, I calmed down enough to re-read the whole ending because I was sooo tired when I read it the first time and it DID make a difference. I still think…what I think…but it wasn’t so bad that I need to de-star it.

And I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about the men in this story (Tella is awesome, Scarlett is awesome, but the boys keep me coming back for more). Julian truly stepped up his game in this one. His heart was literally on his sleeve and I think that if anyone had a problem or was bored by him before (who even ARE you people?) you won’t be now. He shines. And my heart could hardly contain his love. And the other boy, Dante…What a flippin’ turd. And, also, why do I love him so much? He’s mysterious and sacrificial and even though he can be evasive, elusive, and altogether a flighty turd, he is utterly in awe and has utter devotion to Tella, and my heartstrings sing and flutter when he is around. Part 2 spoiler-His story disappointed me. He deserved as epic of a story as Julian. Julian was sacrificial on all fronts. He had a dramatic storyline. His love story ended with a bang. Yes, we get a confession of love by Legend, in the end-and it’s glorious-but his romantic peril was more at the beginning, and wonderful, yet at the end he was just in a sad little cage and it made my heart hurt he didn’t get to be a part of that scene in a monumental way. After everything, the fact that Dante and Tella’s story was way more dramatic, way more perilistic, way more, I don’t know, twisty turny, we get left high and dry, in the end. And I just thought they deserved more, because I think they are technically the more favorited couple.. And the jealousy-OMG. I must say….I do love some jealousy. And the cute way it’s handled-by both-it makes my heart soar.

So, yeah, it’s not perfect, but it was close to perfect for me. These characters are like my family now, and I truly never want to leave this world. Not many series make me wish for more (if ANY), but this is one of them that I could read about for years. Stephanie Garber has created an alternate universe that has enchanted the world, readers around the nation, and made us apart of the whimsical and dangerous world of Caraval. I only wish I could go see her on tour, but that’s okay- I have a great friend who has my back and is taking my books to be signed. I am a Caraval gal now, and I am just so sad this is the last book where I get to see these four wonderful characters. I will continue to read them again and again, and there’s something magical about that in and of itself.

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